Gary Barlow woos Prince Charles and nets 7.3 million for ITV
Monday evening’s schedule brought a luminous break from the gloom and doom of a fresh week, with ITV providing light entertainment-starved viewers with two hours and 35 minutes of star jumps, jazz hands and back flips on The Royal Variety Performance (7:30pm).
The ‘Royal’ part of the title came from the attendance of Prince Charles and his missus – a pair who blagged a free night of quality entertainment simply based on their nepotistic connections.
The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall’s efforts were rewarded by being basked in the presence of comedian and show compère John Bishop (the lucky things). 2013’s big show featured the usual mix of rejects and winners from the commercial broadcaster’s talent competitions, mixed in with large scale and gaudy promotions for new West End musicals.
7.3 million viewers watched as the Queen’s favourite acts of the day – Rizzle Kicks, Chas and Dave, Olly Murs, etc. – entertained the plebs and the aristocracy alike, resulting in the day’s biggest audience. A share of 31% tuned in to see patient and determined national-treasures-in-waiting Gary Barlow and Jessie J reach a level of over exposure previously unseen by humans.
Twitter was also flooded with mentions of the event, generating a peak of 1,565 tweets per minute during its broadcast. This was only beaten by cranium-vacuum Made In Chelsea (E4, 10pm), which managed 2044 tweets per minute but a minuscule audience of 446,000 viewers.
While the star-studded extravaganza got under way, rival channels were busy trying to hang on to some of their usual Monday night audience, with BBC One seeing EastEnders (8pm) badly compromised.
The first trip of the week to sunny Albert Square saw former crack enthusiast Phil Mitchell receive a special delivery – in the shape of the Queen Victoria’s iconic bust – through his living room window.
A lowly 5.5 million viewers watched as Alfie Moon continued on his quest to position the tumultuous Mitchell clan as his mortal enemies, following his disastrous and extremely short-lived marriage to Roxy, resulting in a 23% share.
Straight up afterwards Countryfile superstar Tom Heap was banging on about rising energy bills in Panorama (BBC One, 8:30pm), bringing in 2.4 million viewers and a 10% share.
In the prime time slot, Ripper Street (BBC One, 9pm) geared up for next week’s last ever episode – a fact that has propelled fans to take to the internet over the past week to vent their rage.
Last night’s penultimate episode was the first in a two-part finale, with the Victorian sleuths delving into the world of blood diamonds – because they’ve pretty much covered everything else. Only 2.9 million viewers tuned in for the recently cancelled show’s last case, resulting in a 13% share.
Over on BBC Two, Gareth Malone – the man with the dicky bow that immediately creates distrust in rational people – gathered his five workplace choirs together in The Royal Academy of Music. The third to last episode of The Choir: Sing While You Work (9pm) saw the nervous singers pitched against other groups in a glorious fight to the death.
1.9 million viewers (down from its usual audience of 2.5 million) tuned in for the emotional bloodbath, resulting in an 8% share.
Over on Channel 5, marine biologist Monty Halls was back in his wetsuit and off on anther quest in Monty Halls and Japan’s Lost Atlantis (9pm). After failing to uncover anything significant in the last few episodes, this week saw the crusading adventurer (his new, less academic role on Channel 5 it would seem) splashing about off the island of Yonaguni. 596,000 viewers went along for the scenic ride, netting a 3% share.
Meanwhile, Channel 4 continued to offer fashionable and garish shop, Liberty of London (9pm) free advertising, as is all the rage in broadcasting these days. The second episode of the hugely unnecessary series saw more people go about their retail jobs, dispensing various levels of BS depending on their seniority.
Last week’s audience of 1.6 million viewers fell to 1.1 million last night, with an audience share of 5% watching other people flog overpriced throws to the privileged housewives of London. About as riveting as fried chicken then.
Earlier on in the day, ITV’s Emmerdale (7pm) was unaffected by the variety show and brought in a usual audience of 6.6 million viewers. This meant the soap not only beat EastEnders but secured the day’s second biggest audience.
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Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks and key multi-channel stations.